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DiET or DiE
DiET OR DiE is a WACK publicity stunt where chosen members of WACK are challenged by Watanabe to lose a certain amount of weight. Hug Me The first instance of the challenge was in late 2015, where in a video posted to BiSH's YouTube channel, Hug Me was challenged to lose weight or else her favourite food, beef tongue, would be fed to her cat. She successfully met the goal, however, the challenge was extended throughout BiSH's Swindle tour, where she would be rewarded with various junk foods and buffets if she kept the weight off. Cent Chihiro Chittiii In Spring 2016, Cent Chihiro Chittiii was ordered to lose weight or else she would lose her role as the group's captain. Despite being very close to her weight goal, she failed the challenge and was demoted to Bag Lady. During her challenge, Hug Me and Aina The End also voluntarily went on diets as a way of supporting her. Pour Lui In early 2017, Pour Lui was chosen for an extended version of the challenge as part of a brand deal with famous gym franchise RIZAP. Unlike previous incarnations of the challenge, where members would be weighed on stage and would document their progress on Twitter, Pour Lui's DiET OR DiE was presented as a docuseries on BiS' official YouTube channel. Originally, the punishment for failing the challenge was that Pour Lui would need to cover the costs of her gym course by herself. However, after she began to gain rebound weight, Watanabe threatened to suspend her from BiS if she did not lose it. When she ultimately failed to lose enough weight in September, she was suspended from BiS and a final DiET OR DiE episode showing her crying on the floor and apologising to fans, was posted to their YouTube. This incident caused a significant backlash from both fans and non-fans alike, and caught media attention from websites such as the Huffington Post. Health experts particularly criticised the challenge as promoting eating disorders, pointing out the harsh punishment, Watanabe's insults towards Pour Lui's figure, and Pour Lui's already low starting weight as dangerous and exploitative. All of the DiET OR DiE videos were removed from BiS' YouTube channel and Pour Lui rejoined BiS after three weeks of inactivity. Since then, it has been debated among fans whether or not Pour Lui's suspension was planned in order to see if BiS could still be successful without her (as she announced her graduation just two months after rejoining). Junjun On December 3rd 2018, Watanabe Junnosuke announced on his Twitter that he would be doing the challenge. This was a first, as previous times he enforced the diet onto his idols rather than himself. He posted updates on his twitter with the hashtag #ジュンジュンdiet (Junjun Diet), but updates stopped after March 11th, 2019. Trivia * As of 2018, only HUG ME's DiET or DiE attempt has video footage on an official group YouTube. CENT CHiHiRO CHiCCHi's was never documented on video and all of Pour Lui's videos were removed following backlash (however, some fan accounts have since reuploaded some of the videos). * This is one of the first WACK challenges that Watanabe has attempted himself. Category:Publicity Stunts Category:Scandals